How can I populate a FK field using EF Code First? - entity-framework-4.1

Question

I have a class Mailout with a Status that looks like this:
public class Mailout
{
public int Id {get; set; }
public string Name {get; set; }
public MailoutStatus Status { get; set; }
}
public class MailoutStatus
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set;}
}
When I insert Mailouts and set the Status property, they are inserted correctly. When I fetch them, Status is always null. Since I don't have (and don't want) the status ID on my Mailout class, I have no way to retrieve it after-the-fact. How do I tell EF to populate this field eagerly, rather than lazily?
I'm hoping I can set something up in OnModelCreating() since I want this behavior all the time, not as an option that I can use sometimes by manipulating my LINQ-to-Entities queries.

Answer 1

You need to make your navigation properties virtual.

Answer 2

There is no such option in the ModelBuilder to configure an automatic eager loading of navigation properties in each query. You have to specify it query by query. As a workaround you could encapsulate eager loading in some method or property, for instance in the context:
public class MyContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<Mailout> Mailouts { get; set; }
public IQueryable<Mailout> MailoutsWithStatus
{
get { return Mailouts.Include(m => m.Status); }
}
// ...
}
And then use in your queries:
context.MailoutsWithStatus.Where(...) ... etc.
Only an idea, it's untested.

Answer 3

Taking from Employee Info Starter Kit - upcoming MVC edition, here is a snippet, that works pretty well, to eager load objects when used:
public class Employee
{
...
public int? ReportsTo { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ReportsTo")]
public virtual Employee Supervisor { get; set; }
/// <summary>
/// Children object collection of foreign key relation
/// </summary>
public virtual List<Employee> Subordinates { get; set; }
}